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UNIVERSITY OF THE STA^i?E OF NEW YOBK 

TWKNTT-SKVKNTH COWTOCATIOST 

18S0 



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The Scope of College Instruction in 

Pedagogy 



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By Professor S.G? Williams, Cornell University 



[Reprinted from the Proceedings] 



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JUN 22 1914 






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if ^V^he Scope of College Instruction in Pedagogy. 



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By Professor S. G. Williams, CorneU University. 



To the Regents of the University of New York is due the credit of 
having been the pioneers in this country in efforts for the better 
special preparation of teachers for both the public and the secondary 
schools. As early as 1821, they called the attention of the academies 
to their duty of supplying well-equipped teachers for the common 
schools. In 1828 they returne4 to the same subject, supported by the 
opinion of the State Superintendent of Instruction, that it is " sound 
policy and good economy " to employ for the training of teachers of 
common schools, the widely diffused academies which may be made 
to reach the needs of all localities. In 1832 the Regents call extended 
attention to this subject, in reporting the special work in this direc- 
tion already undertaken by such institutions as Canandaigua and St. 
Lawrence academies, inJ'W^ich* they say " a part of the course of study 
consists of lectures on the principles of teaching." In the report for 
1834, we find that a considerable number of academies had been 
added to this list; and the propriety of legislative aid had become so 
obvious, that in this same year an act was passed appropriating funds 
to be used by the Regents for the encouragement of teachers' classes. 
Under this law in 1835 the system of teachers' classes was inaugu- 
rated which, with various changes and one interruption, has continued 
until the present time to supply to the common schools much the 
largest part of their teachers. The system as at first devised contem- 
plated the utilization of the resources and apparatus of the secondary 
schools in imparting the branches to be taught, during a course of 
three years, and the payment to these institutions of a sufficient sum 
to furnish the additional teaching force for the professional branches, 
in which were included ethics, psychology and the principles of 
teaching. The practice work was to be performed by teaching in 
small schools during one-third of each year which was allowed for 
this purpose. The original plan, though somewhat too ambitious for 
the time when it was proposed, can not but be considered one wisely 
adapted to place widely in the schools of the State a well-prepared 



2 University of the State of New York. 

body of teachers at a minimum of expense. It is still a vitally 
essential auxiliary of the normal schools. 

After this important experiment had successfully passed its trial 
stage and had been firmly established, the Eegents took another step 
in advance by calling attention, in their report for 1867, to the 
need of providing through the colleges suitable pedagogic instruction 
for those who were to become teachers in secondary schools. Advert- 
ing to the fact that there was not a college in the State, nor in the 
country, in which pedagogic instruction was offered, they continue in 
these words, " and yet, the young man who goes from his alma mater 
familiar with the history of education, and the ^stems of his own 
and other countries, who has studied the philosophy of mind in view 
of the influences by which its powers may be developed, who under- 
stands the true order of their development, and who, by his own 
training, can bring himself into the warmest sympathy with his pupil 
and influence him to high purposes and energetic action, is surely the 
better qualified teacher." This sentence deserves special attention 
because of the clearness with which it outlines a proper course of col- 
legiate pedagogy. In 1868 Professor North presented to this Convoca- 
tion a cogent and convincing argument for the need of such depart, 
' ments in colleges, and called especial attention to the fallacy of 
the idea that knowledge of the subjects to be taught is the sole 
requisite for successful teaching. This idea, which is not yet entirely 
eradicated from the minds of men in high educational places, seems 
to be a legacy from the universities of the Middle Ages, in which the 
first certificate, answering to our present graduation, appears to have 
had the form of a licencia docendi, a privilege which was based solely 
on supposed acquirements, and which, from the universality of its 
prerogative, under the protection of the church, was counted of great 
value. Thirteen years later Professor North again called the atten- 
tion of the Convocation to college pedagogy, and in 1882, the present 
essayist presented a report from a committee appointed to consider 
this subject, and suggested a plan for accomplishing the desired end, 
which though approved in its main features by the Convocation, has 
not as yet obtained the legislative aid which seemed needful to give it 
effect. 

At the time when the Regents made their first recommendation 
looking to the professional preparation of those who were to become 
teachers in secondary schools, no provision of this kind had been 
made in this or any other English-speaking country. In the twenty- 
one years that have since elapsed all this has been changed, and it is 
not impossible that the suggestions of the report, published in 1868, 



Scope of College Instruction in Pedagogy. S 

though they have not yet produced here the effect that was desired, 
may still have been influential in other quarters in calling attention 
to a jDuhlic need. Beginning with 1873, chairs of pedagogy have 
been successively established in the State universities of Iowa, Missouri 
tj- . Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana, in Cornell University, and recently 
^ in the University of the City of New York; and lectures on pedagogy 
^ have been given in Johns Hopkins University by the professor of 
>»s) philosophy, and in Princeton by the professor of Latin. In England 
^ the College of Preceptors, an association of teachers, established a 
^ professorship of pedagogy about 1872, and with some of the inspiring 
r^ lectures given by Joseph Payne under the auspices of this body many 
^ teachers on this side of the Atlantic are well acquainted. In 1876 
chairs of pedagogy were established in the Scottish universities of 
Edinburgh and St. Andrews, and in 1879 the University of Cambridge 
provided through a syndicate for courses of lectures on the science, 
art and history of education. One of these courses forms the well- 
known work by J. G. Fitch entitled " Lectures on Teaching." 

It is evident, therefore, that enough has ah'eady been done in 
English-sjDeaking lands to emphasize the consciousness of a need that 
more effective provisions be made for giving due professional train- 
ing to secondary teachers, who are again in turn to become the 
trainers of teachers for the larger part of the public schools. 

I shall not here enter on a plea for such training. At this day such a 
plea should no longer be needful. In an age when departments are 
multiplied in our universities for the professional training of lawyers to 
care for our rights of person and property, of physicians to promote 
our bodily well-being, and clergymen to minister to the needs of the 
soul; it should surely need no argument to enforce the necessity of 
a special preparation, besides a mere knowledge of the branches to be 
taught, for those who are to undertake with the young the most diffi- 
cult and delicate functions of all three of these professions; who are 
to develop the body to capability as well as to health; who are to 
influence the feelings and to direct the will at an age when both feel- 
ings and will are most susceptible to influence and direction; and 
who, to attain to any considerable success, need all the trained versa- 
tility and acuteness of lawyers, in the clear logical arrangement and 
presentation of ideas, and in the difficult art of so using questions as to 
probe the very depths of the j)iipil's soul. Let us i-ather, assuming 
the necessity of college pedagogy, inquire what such pedagogy should 
aim to accomplish. 

The sentence quoted above from the Regents' Report for 18G7 gives 
a good and tolerably complete suggestion of what .may fairly be 



4 VmVERSITY OF tEE StATE OF l^EW ToElt. 

expected of sucli a department, viz., application of tlie philosophy of 
mind to understanding the true order of development of the youth- 
ful faculties and capabilities, and the most effective means of assur- 
ing such development; practical and practicable directions for school 
instruction, that the young teacher may know how best " to influence 
his pupils to high purposes and energetic action;" familiarity with 
school systems, that he may know how most effectively and economi- 
cally to organize and manage schools; and knowledge of the history 
of educational effort and opinions, both to enlarge his ideas of the 
import of educational questions, and to guard him against futile 
experiments. Let us consider what is fairly implied in this succinct 
statement of things desirable. 

Since the theory or philosophy of education is based on what we 
know of body and mind, it is essential that an acquaintance with phy- 
siology, ethics and psychology should precede its systematic discus- 
sion. There would seem to be no difficulty in so arranging the 
sequence of college studies, if it is not already so arranged, that 
these branches may be completed by the close of the junior or even 
of the sophomore year, thus leaving a proper portion of the senior 
year for pedagogy. Where the number of the professors is not large, 
it might be well that the professor of pedagogy should be charged 
with the preliminary teaching in ethics and psychology; in which case 
he could adapt the instruction to his future needs by such a combi- 
nation of the study of a text-book, like Sully's for example, with sub- 
lectures and a course of personal observation and study of human 
nature in action, as would fit the knowledge gained for easy use in 
the philosophy of education. 

1. Setting out from these preliminary studies and dealing with 
principles which arise from their proper application, pedagogy has 
to develop such a theory of education as shall be conformable to the 
nature of the being to be educated and conformable also to the 
present state of culture. As regards conformity to nature, it has to 
deal, not with the unsolved problems of philosophy, nor with a fancied 
nature operating in mysterious and undiscoverable ways, but with a 
nature whose processes are open to the observation of him who atten- 
tively considers his own inner self, and then thoughtfully and sympa- 
thetically uses the knowledge thus gained as a key to unlock the hidden 
recesses of other hearts. It has, also, not merely to deal with the nature, 
the processes and the motives of the mature man, but even more care- 
fully to consider the conditions under which, the agencies by which, and 
the order in which the faculties of the intelligence, the capacities of 
feeling, and the forces of the will are likely to attain the maximum of 



Scope of College Instruction in Pedaoogt. 5 

beneficent energy proper to each individual being. It has, therefore 
to discuss, not so much the already developed nature as the being in 
course of development, and the means by whose judicioi»e use this 
being may be aided to attain to freedom of thinking and rightness of 
action. In the progress of this discussion, scientific pedagogy may 
rightfully lay chief stress on that which is most likely to be over- 
looked amid the wearing duties of the teacher, such as due care of 
the body, that its immortal tenant may be aided rather than hindered 
by its condition ; the proper cultivation of the observing powers, with- 
out which all the higher intellectual operations are likely to be 
clouded with doubt or vitiated by error; the right use of memory, as 
an orderly treasure-house of only what the understanding has 
grasped; the development of imagination in the form of ability to 
realize what is read or uttered, without which the power to gain clear 
ideas from books is greatly limited, and especially studies of history 
and remote literatures lose most of their value; and the intelligent 
training of the judgment and the powers of thought allied to it, by 
making upon them constant demands adapted to their degree of 
development. Great emphasis should certainly be laid on the dis- 
cussions of those manifestations of our nature whose collective expres- 
sion constitutes character, viz., the feelings and the will; not only 
because character is the most important result of education, but 
because the proper development, regulation and direction of these 
vitally important capabilities, lying as they do largely outside the 
range of school studies, are exceedingly liable to be overlooked 
in schools. Many a conscientious teacher who is disposed to repine 
that the circumstances of the schools preclude him from giving 
positive religious instruction, might do well to question himself 
seriously whether he is already making a full and discreet use of the 
means for developing character, which lie wholly within his unques- 
tioned sphei'e of influence, and by a skillful employment of which, he 
may rise from the ranks of mere instructors into the noble army of 
true educators. 

After duly discussing the aims of education, with the view of con- 
forming all the operations of the school to the requirements of the 
unfolding nature, pedagogic science needs to consider its means as 
embodied in the studies pursued in schools, to the end that the 
future teacher may have some reasonable aids to guide his judgment, 
not only in the selection, arrangement and use of studies as educa- 
tional instrumentalities, but also in rightly adjusting his views to the 
new demands arising from the present state of culture. All experi- 
enced school-rpen know welj "vyhS't iq meant by the conflict of studies. 



6 University of the State of New Tobe. 

The right of long-tested studies to hold any prominent place in our 
schools is hotly questioned on apparently plausible grounds. The 
claims of new branches to a place in programmes already over- 
crowded, are urged ever and again by zealous advocates. The spirit 
of the age is invoked, as if in some mysterious way the development 
and growth of immature minds were subjected to this intangible 
influence; and the idea would seem almost to be entertained 
in some quarters, that because the domain of knowledge is 
now so vast, some snfattering of all that is worth knowing 
should be pressed upon children and youth, with little regard 
to their present powers of assimilation; whereas, in view of 
human limitations, the logical deduction from the multiplicity of 
studies should be, not to an expansion of programmes, but to a 
thoughtful selection of what is at present fittest for the purpose of 
the schools in training their pupils for the present conditions of life. 
Every new generation doubtless needs to take a careful account of its 
pedagogical stock in trade, that it may wisely readjust its views of 
subjects to the changing state of knowledge, may deliberately accept 
changes which are found to be in the line of progress, and may have 
a distinct consciousness of the grounds on which it declines to make 
other changes. In such deliberations, the young men who graduate 
from our colleges, should be fitted to bear an influential part, — a 
part dictated not by passion and prejudice, but by deep pedagogical 
insight into the scope and educational value of studies. Besides, 
apart from the delicacy and importance of questions relating to the 
readjustment of programmes of study, there can be no doubt that 
more effective instruction in a subject is likely to be given by a teacher 
who is familiar not only with its subject-matter, but also with its 
essential methods, and with the mental powers which it should most 
largely call into activity. For the purpose therefore, as well of 
directing aright the spirit and method of instruction in various 
branches, as of giving to the future directors of schools the princi- 
ples which should guide them in the selection and arrangement of 
schemes of study, the entire subject of studies should receive 
from the chair of pedagogy a careful, philosophical, and above 
all, dispassionate discussion. For convenience and clearness 
of discussion, it will be found that all the various branches 
which are taught in the several classes of schools may with- 
out violence be assembled in four well-marked groups, which 
may be called language, mathematical, scientific and historic groups. 
Each of these groups has its own distinctive kind of subject-matter; 
each has its own strongly-marked method pf reaching its ends, which 



Scope of College Lystruction in Pedagogy. 7 

should naturally control the spirit and the method in which it is to 
be taught; each also is adapted, in its proper use to give effective 
training to certain capabilities of mind and heart. By a proj^er 
combination and use of them all, youth may not only gain that 
desideratum, asymmetrical training; but may also attain some degree 
of mastery of all the fundamental methods by which trained minds 
are enabled to reach exact or approximate truth. Thus whilst gaining 
desirable knowledge, they may also gain that without which knowledge 
would have small value — the ability to face all the problems which 
life may present with a fair prospect of success in their solution. 
Each of these groups, it should also be said, has its thoroughly 
elementary aspect, level to the capacities and tastes of the youngest; 
yet advances by branches of growing difficulty and complexity so as 
to give fitting exercise to growing powers. Each moreover may be 
so pursued in some one of the lines into which it subdivides, as to 
afford in a good degree the intellectual benefits which the entire 
group offers, without a vain attempt to master all. Thus, for 
example, language study, which begins by extending the child's 
mastery of his vernacular, may be continued exclusively into the 
science and then the literature of the mother tongue; or, with this, if 
circumstances permit, may be connected the study of some ancient 
or modern language and its literature, and finally this study may 
pass into linguistics and literary criticism. Similarly with the 
scientific group, in which, beginning with deepening and con- 
firming habits of careful observation, and with gaining a conscious 
experience of common phenomena, we may afford a fair insight 
into scientific method by pushing some one or two of its 
branches so far as to confirm habits of systematic observation and 
experimentation and of careful generalization. These examples are 
intended merely as illustrations of the manner in which a discussion 
of studies, as means of development, may be made to suggest to our 
future directors of studies how to avoid overloading their programmes 
by attempting the impossible, yet without omitting anything essential 
to complete intellectual efficiency. 

2. Such a discussion serves also as a natural transition from the 
science of education to the art of instruction, in which the principles 
previously gained are to be practically applied in suggesting modes 
of procedure suited to the nature of various studies, and at the same 
time adapted to the capabilities of youth at given stages of advance- 
ment. Since the professor of pedagogy, from lack of time and 
possibly of special knowledge, can treat the modes of instruction in 
various groups of studies only in a quite general and suggestive way, 



8 University of tee State of New York. 

referring all processes to certain great fundamental principles which 
no teacher really doubts however frequently he may overlook them, — 
it is highly desirable to secure the cooperation of professors in each 
of the groups that have been named, and to induce them to present 
somewhat in detail and with appropriate illustrations the most 
approved methods of elementary teaching in their specialties. , This 
is usually best done by the seminary method. In this way each 
student, while having the benefit of the general suggestions, will 
be able to apply himself more fully to the special department 
in which he hopes to excel. It is probably needless to 
suggest that the difference in mental maturity and stand- 
ard of attainment of college and secondary school students 
should be borne in mind in discussing the proper modes of presenting 
specialties. Besides the clear and progressive treatment of the vari- 
ous branches which enter into the programs of the schools, other 
matters of great practical interest in the art of instruction need a 
considerate treatment. Among these are the conduct of recitations 
and examinations, school incentives, and the difficult yet highly 
important art of questioning, expounding, and illustrating. Moreover, 
since the usefulness and the effects of examinations are at present not 
a little called in question, it would be entirely appropriate to give 
this subject, and others of a kindred immediate interest, a candid and 
thoughtful discussion. In the entire treatment of the art of instruc- 
tion, it is well to bear in mind this excellent maxim of our German 
fellow-workers, in their training of teachers: "The better one knows 
the rules and principles of his art, the more boldly he practices 
them." In all his early efforts, the young teacher will need the 
courage which springs from the conviction that his processes are 
correct and well founded. 

3. Another department of college pedagogic work, wholly practi- 
cal in character, yet somewhat distinct from instruction, has reference 
to the organization of schools; their management, government, and 
supervision; proper economy of time in school work, and of money in 
school administration; school architecture, warming, and ventilation; 
and, so far as possible, a study of school systems existing in our own 
and other countries, and their administration. 

4. A seminary will be found a most important adjunct to the 
courses in the science and art of teaching. In this there may be a 
free discussion of important educational questions; extended investi- 
gations by the aid of the college library, of subjects especially 
assigned, the results of which may be presented in writing — foreign 
school systems could doubtless be most satisfactorily treated iu this 



Scope of College Insteuotton in Pedagogy. 9 

way — and visitation of neighboring schools, followed by discussion 
of what has been thus observed. Other profitable uses of the semi- 
nary will readily suggest themselves; such, for example, as a study of 
school legislation, or the examination of the educational opinions of 
eminent men. 

5. Although it is obviously very difficult in our colleges to give the 
so desirable practice work in class instruction, yet something of con- 
siderable value may be accomplished in this regard by appointing 
members of the class to conduct recitations of their class-mates on 
the subject of the lectures, or on pedagogic topics set from books. 
To reap the full benefit of these exercises, ample time should be 
allowed for preparation to both teacher and class, and judicious criti- 
cism should follow, calling attention to faults and suggesting reme- 
dies. Special attention may well be given in these practice lessons to 
the mariner of presenting subjects and clearing up difiiculties. An 
obvious incidental advantage of such exercises, is that they may afford 
to the professor valuable indications of the probable teaching ability 
of the several members of his class, which he can turn to account in 
recommending them to places which they will be likely to fill accept- 
ably. This practice work can be greatly extended and made very 
profitable by class exercises in the seminaries of special professors, 
should such seminaries be established, these exercises being made an 
application of the modes of presentation recommended by the 
professors. 

6. History of education. Thus far we have considered what may 
fairly be expected from a college department of pedagogy in its treat- 
ment of the theoretical and j)ractical aspects of education. But there 
is another and highly important point of view which such a depart- 
ment can by no means afford to neglect, and that is the examination 
of education in its historical development. Education, like civiliza- 
tion with which it is closely correlated, has had its slow and inter- 
mittent progress, marked by vicissitudes, checked by great national 
disasters, illustrated by great original efforts and by experiments often 
futile, and illumined at various epochs by brilliant theories and discus- 
sions. In studying this history, the student is brought into the most 
vital contact with the controlling ideas of the great historic races, * 
with their ideals of life and conduct, and with their views of human 
progress, human perfection and human destiny, all which they strove 
to embody in the education which they imparted to their young. He 
will be led, not merely to consider to what ends, by what means, 
through what agencies, and with what material appliances and organ- 
izations, various races have striven to train the young for their future 
2 



10 VNIVERStTt OP TEE StAfE OF N'eW Yob:^. 

destination, and what results of these efforts are rerealed in ihe char- 
acter, the history and the fate of nations; but also to analyze and 
weigh the opinions that have been entertained at various epochs by 
Sages and philosophers, as to the ideas that should control, the aims 
that should be proposed, and the means that should be used, in what 
all have agreed to be a supreme object of human interest, the educa- 
tion of youth. By an intelligent comparison of such opinionSj 
he will be enabled to detect, amidst many apparent divergences 
in matters of detail, their fundamental points of agreement; to 
discover what among their ideas were the result of special 
views of life, or of special social or political relations, and 
so * were in their very nature transient and temporary ; and 
what, on the other hand, have reference to universal man, what- 
ever his circumstances, and thus are likely to be as permanent as 
human nature itself. Indeed, it is only through a knowledge of past 
educational efforts and of their inspiring ideas, that the student 
can be enabled to appreciate fairly our present stage of educational 
attainment; to understand by what means and through what struggles 
this standpoint has been reached; and to judge more intelligently 
along what lines future efforts for educational improvement should 
be directed. In the teacher's calling, as in all other vocations which 
have to deal with great human interests, it is only through profound 
knowledge of the past, thoughtfully elaborated, that one can attain 
to that unerring sagacity, that breadth of view, that justness of judg- 
ment, which are likely to make their possessor a wise and reliable 
guide in matters which concern the largest interests of the schools- 
As the wise and philosophic statesman must be deeply versed in his- 
tory, so must also he be who, as a teacher, desires to be greatly use- 
ful in his calling; and such should assuredly be the worthy aim of not 
a few of the young men who yearly graduate from our colleges. By 
the college then should these young men be guided to this important 
source of educational wisdom, and, whilst gaining such foretaste of 
its treasures as may be practicable, they should be directed to those 
larger sources of information which may be found in many well- 
known histories, biographies and public documents, and in the 
treatises of those who have philosophized on education, from the 
" Instruction " of the Egyptian Ptahhotep and the Eepublic of Plato, 
down to times within the range of our own experience. The course 
which is here suggested as essential, contemplates only the presenta- 
tion of the history of education in its larger bearings and its most 
important phases, and the direction of the student to such works as 
may best further his efforts for more complete knowledge in this impor- 



Scope oi College Instruction in Pedaooot. 11 

tant field during his future career. Obviously, however, this study may 
be pushed in the college to any degree of completeness which time 
will allow, by the use of seminary methods with the aid of a well- 
selected library. 

Such, then, is the outline of what seems desirable in the college 
treatment of pedagogy. It should be based on a previous knowledge 
of ethics and psychology. It should embrace the theory of educa- 
tion, the art of instruction, the art of organizing and administering 
schools, the history of education and some illustrative practice in the 
conduct of class exercises. It should be accompanied by a seminary, 
to introduce to the investigation of educational questions, and, where 
practicable, of educational history, and to secure careful visitations of 
schools and discussion of their methods. It should, when possible, 
include also a somewhat minute presentation by the professors of 
languages, of mathematics, of science and of history, of the best 
modes of teaching their specialties. Such a course, exclusive of sem- 
inaries, would require at least five recitation hours per week for a 
year for its proper presentation. 



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